A Valentine's Styled Shoot with Ellery

This one was a styled Valentine's shoot with Ellery, one of my seniors. It was cold, it was windy, we worked fast, and you cannot tell any of that from the frames. I don't fit many styled shoots in between client sessions anymore, so the ones I do get to make have to count.

Why I still make room for styled shoots

Between being a wife, a mom, and a photographer, styled shoots are the first thing to fall off a calendar.

They're also where I learn the most. No shot list, no expectations, just an idea and somebody willing to stand in the wind for it.

What a senior session is actually for

Teenagers, and teenage girls in particular, live inside a running commentary telling them they are not enough. My job is to argue with it.

It isn't the hair or the makeup or the clothes. I want a senior to look at her own photograph and finally see what everybody else already sees.

That's why I turn the camera around mid-session and show them the back of it. The moment a senior sees the first frame is the moment her posture changes, and every frame after that one is different.

What went into this shoot

• The senior: Ellery, one of my own clients
• The concept: Valentine's, styled start to finish
• The video: filmed by my sister Sarah at White Oak Films
• The conditions: cold, windy, and completely invisible in the final images

Having a second person there changes the rhythm of a session for the better. Ellery had someone to talk to between setups instead of standing in the wind waiting on me.

Where the confidence comes from

Ellery showed up as herself and left holding proof of it. That's the version of this job I care about.

Nothing about a session turns a person into somebody else. It just gets the real one on record, lit properly and printed large enough to see.

If there's a senior in your house who could use an afternoon like this one, start a conversation with me and I'll tell you what it looks like.